Search Results for: Climate change

BY KEITH NUTHALL, ALAN OSBORN and LEE ADENDORFF

IT is hard to argue against the need for energy efficient buildings, especially those that generate more energy than they consume via solar panels, geo-thermal and other alternative power systems. But the best way of regulating developers and their utility partners so that they choose the most energy efficient construction and integrated infrastructure is very much an open question.…

BY MARK GODFREY

COMMUNIST Party cadres from around China are being bussed out to Asuwei landfill in Beijing’s Changping suburb to view a showcase for how China wants to manage waste in the future. As China urbanises, its solid waste output has been climbing by 9% a year, said Rasmus Reinvag, co-author of a recent China environmental sector report by the WWF conservation group and Norwegian-government owned development group Innovation Norway.…

BY MARK ROWE and GAVIN BLAIR

THE ANSWER to the world’s future fuel needs may be literally all around us, and freely available in abundance, thanks to the throw-away society of the 21st century. Bioenergy, produced from all matter of waste products, from wood chips, to agricultural husks and slurry, has been steadily elevated up the list of potential sources of energy that will be required in a low-carbon world.…

By Alan Osborn

A Swiss university has launched a course to bring modern business skills to the elite public servants of tomorrow – the people who run the key international organisations and agencies that increasingly shape the modern world. The International Organisations Master of Business Administration (IOMBA) programme has been set up by the University of Geneva to correct what the school sees as a major deficiency at present – the lack of proper managerial skills among those who staff these global bodies.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE LONG awaited formal review of the European Union’s (EU) block exemption for the EU auto sector from standard European competition rules should be launched next Wednesday (22-7). The ruling ‘college’ of the European Commission – the EU executive – is poised to release a detailed consultation paper that day on "how we should or shouldn’t revise the current rules", an Brussels official said.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

INDIAN environmentalists and farmers’ groups are warning major drinks companies that by transforming the country’s horticulture patterns and changing its existing fruit supply chain they are playing with fire.

New Delhi-based environmental activist Vandana Shiva is far from unusual in arguing swift social and economic change caused by large scale earmarking of primary production could cause unrest.…

BY MARK GODFREY

RECOVERING from last year’s disastrous melamine poisoning scandal, China’s dairy sales rose 12.4% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to figures for the last quarter of 2008 according to Rabobank. The Yili Group, China’s second-largest dairy producer, announced first quarter 2009 profits of US$19.5 million – double what it earned in the previous quarter.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

DETAILED rules have been announced in Sweden for a groundbreaking ecolabelling project that highlights food producers who reduce the amount of greenhouse gas they emit by at least 25%. Criteria for cereal, vegetable, dairy and fish products have now been launched (NOTE – ON JUNE 26) and standards for other product groups are due for release in October.…

By Alan Osborn

EU agriculture ministers and officials will return to Brussels from their August summer break to push ahead with developing a plan l from the European Commission to create what amounts to a supranational agricultural research organisation for Europe.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

FACED with a global recession caused partly by commercial financial crime, governments have been pushed into taking action against tax evasion in recent months by ending the practice of banking secrecy. Is it the end of the road for tax havens as protected jurisdictions where illicit transactions can hide?…